1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to food products and, more particularly, to presweetened ready-to-eat breakfast cereals. In its method aspect, the present invention relates to methods for the preparation of presweetened food products such as R-T-E cereals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Cereal products, particularly R-T-E (hereinafter "R-T-E") breakfast cereals, are well-known and popular food items, particularly presweetened R-T-E cereals. Typically, such products include various coatings usually comprising nutritive carbohydrate sweeteners such as sucrose, corn syrup, fructose, etc. Also known are presweetened R-T-E cereals comprising coatings that include a high potency sweetener (See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,377, issued Mar. 29, 1983, entitled "Cereal Presweetened With Aspartame And Method Of Preparation", and U.S. Pat. No. 4,540,587, issued Sep. 10, 1985, entitled "Cereal Presweetened With Aspartame And Cold Water Soluble Gum Coating And Method Of Preparation", each to Gajewski).
Conventionally, presweetened breakfast cereals have been prepared by first producing unsweetened cereal pieces, particularly puffed cereal pieces; coating the cereal pieces with an aqueous slurry or solution of sweeteners; and then drying the coated pieces in an oven or air current to remove the added moisture.
The present invention provides further improvements upon those presweetened R-T-E cereal products and their methods of preparation that are described in U.S. application Ser. No. 09/272,791 entitled Presweetened Ready To Eat Cereals With Gelatin and Methods of Preparation" (filed Mar. 19, 1999 to D. Green et al. and incorporated herein by reference). In addition to gelatin, the topical coatings described therein optionally comprise a calcium material.
The present iapplication is directed towards providing presweetened coated R-T-E cereals that are calcium fortified at least in part by essentially including calcium into the sugar or presweeter coating and that optionally con comprise gelatin.
For adults, recent medical studies have indicated that a diet containing the U.S. recommended daily allowance (RDA) of calcium might be effective in preventing or mitigating osteoporosis, and also possibly high blood pressure and colon cancer. Calcium is of particular nutritional value in growing children to support bone growth. There is therefore great public interest in the consumption of food products that will supply the recommended daily allowance of calcium.
In view of the desire for introducing more calcium into diets, especially children's diets, it would be desirable if such R-T-E cereal products were fortified with supplemental calcium to provide a significantly nutritionally enhanced product. By significantly nutritionally enhanced is meant a product having at least 10% of the current recommended daily allowance ("RDA") or at least 100 mg of calcium per serving (typically 25 to 35 g of product) of R-T-E cereal.
Calcium can be added in limited amounts to R-T-E cereal products. R-T-E breakfast cereal products fabricated from cooked cereal doughs have long been fortified with various vitamins and minerals to supplement the native levels of calcium associated with the grain ingredients from which the products are prepared. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 2,166,797 (issued Jul. 18, 1939 to F. A. Collatz) entitled "Process of Fortifying Cereal Products with Minerals" and U.S. Pat. No. 2,239,543 (issued Apr. 22, 1941) entitled "Mineral Fortification of Foodstuffs" to Andrews et al., each of which are incorporated herein by reference. In each of these, a calcium source has been combined with a phosphate material. More recently and since at least 1985, certain corn and wheat flake R-T-E cereals have contained about 1% calcium from a calcium phosphate that provides about 200 mg calcium per ounce of cereal.
However, at higher levels of calcium fortification, the presence of such high amounts of calcium can adversely interfere with other desired product characteristics. For example, high levels of added calcium materials could negatively affect the taste, texture and density of the R-T-E cereal products. In particular, it is difficult to add calcium to cooked cereal dough that are to be made into puffed or expanded R-T-E cereals. Children's R-T-E cereals are disproportionately puffed R-T-E cereal products.
Calcium ingredients, and in particular, calcium carbonate, has been added as a leavening agent at low levels (e.g., about 0.1% to 0.3%) to cooked cereal doughs that are formed into puffed R-T-E products. If higher amounts of calcium carbonate are added such as to levels that are effective for calcium fortification, then the finished puffed cereal products do not readily form complex shapes such as are described in DES 339,443 or DES 339,444 each issued Sep. 11, 1993 and entitled "Food Product". Puffed products having such higher calcium levels tend to be misshaped and/or blow apart due to excessive leavening. Also, the cell structure can be adversely affected leading to deterioration in eating quality.
In view of the current interest in providing R-T-E cereals having high levels of calcium fortification, it would thus be desirable to provide R-T-E cereal products fabricated cooked cereal doughs fortified with supplemental calcium to provide a significantly nutritionally enhanced product.